By Mencap
At Mencap, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to live a healthy, happy life. Yet too often, people with a learning disability A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things. face barriers to accessing health information, services and opportunities in their communities.
That's why we're proud to be delivering Healthier Me, an ambitious programme that puts people with a learning disability at the heart of their own health and wellbeing journey.
Thanks to the generous funding from Omaze, Healthier Me is helping people with a learning disability across England, Wales and Northern Ireland build confidence, develop healthier habits and achieve goals that matter to them.
Putting people in control of their health
Healthier Me is all about supporting people with a learning disability to make informed choices about their health and wellbeing and encouraging positive changes in people’s lives.
Through personalised support, workshops, community A community is the people and places in an area. connections and practical resources, the programme helps people set meaningful health goals and take achievable steps towards reaching them.
Our aims are to:
- Improve people's confidence and agency over their own health.
- Increase understanding of diet and nutrition.
- Improve awareness of and access to health-related groups and services in local communities.
- Empower support staff to provide high-quality health and wellbeing support.
- Create a lasting culture of health and wellbeing across Mencap's Personal Support services.
Reaching communities across the UK
Healthier Me is supporting people through a network of 11 Healthier Me Hubs:
- West Wales
- Northern Ireland
- Nottingham
- North Yorkshire (Richmond and Northallerton)
- London (Sutton, Kingston upon Thames and Merton)
- Greater Manchester (Tameside, Rochdale and Oldham)
- Liverpool, Sefton and Skelmersdale
- Essex West (Chelmsford, Waltham Abbey, Witham and Harlow)
- Cornwall West (Bodmin, Redruth and Penzance)
- Powys/Shropshire
- South Yorkshire (Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley).
Across many of these locations, dedicated Healthier Me Coaches are working directly with people with a learning disability, Mencap teams and community partners to make health and wellbeing more
accessible
Accessible means something is easy for people to use or join in with. For example: Accessible writing means the writing is easy to read and understand.
for everyone.
Meet our Healthier Me Coaches
Our Healthier Me Coaches play a vital role in bringing the programme to life.
Our Healthier Me Coaches work alongside people with a learning disability to:
- Set and achieve personal health goals.
- Deliver engaging Healthier Me workshops, covering diet, exercise and mental health.
- Identify barriers to health and wellbeing and develop practical solutions.
- Connect people with accessible community activities and services.
- Recruit and support Healthier Me Champions – colleagues with a learning disability who help shape and strengthen the programme.
- Invest in local ideas and initiatives that respond to community needs.
Most importantly, the programme is led by the people and communities it serves.
Different approaches, shared goals
In some areas, Healthier Me is being delivered through innovative local partnerships.
South Yorkshire
We are investing directly in our Personal Support teams, giving four
support workers
Support workers are people who are paid to give care and support to people who need it.
dedicated paid opportunities to:
- Support people to set and achieve health goals.
- Deliver Healthier Me workshops.
- Invest in health and wellbeing activities within their services and communities.
Powys/Shropshire
We are partnering with Derwen College in Gobowen, working together to help learners and staff:
- Set and work towards health goals.
- Access Healthier Me workshops.
- Invest in health and wellbeing opportunities.
Building a healthier future
Healthier Me goes beyond individual support. The programme is helping create long-term change across Mencap.
As part of this work, we are:
- Developing Healthier Me booklets covering healthy eating, exercise and mental health.
- Creating new learning and development opportunities focused on health and wellbeing for Mencap colleagues.
- Building partnerships with organisations Organisations are groups like companies and businesses. including Diabetes UK and the NHS The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals. to improve access to specialist health training.
- Developing a dedicated Healthier Me online resource hub.
- Supporting cross-organisational work that promotes health and wellbeing.
- Providing funding opportunities to Personal Support teams to invest in health and wellbeing for the people we support.
- Growing
volunteer
A volunteer is someone who helps out by doing work for free.
opportunities, including our Healthier Me Cooking
Volunteer
A volunteer is someone who helps out by doing work for free.
role.
Making an impact
Over the course of the programme, we aim to:
- Support 1,000 people with a learning disability to set and achieve health goals.
- Support 1,000 people with a learning disability to take part in Healthier Me nutrition workshops.
- Support 110 staff members to access Healthier Me workshops, training and wellbeing information.
We will measure our impact through surveys, focus groups Where a group of people meet to talk about a topic, and a researcher asks them some questions. , progress trackers, stories and feedback from people taking part, helping us understand the difference Healthier Me is making in people's lives.
Healthier Me is about giving people with a learning disability the tools, confidence and opportunities to make choices about their health that work for them.
As well as this we are providing our personal support teams with access to more resources and learning about health - empowering them to provide better quality care.
We are already seeing some amazing success stories, not just in our Healthier Me sites, but more broadly across the organisation, too.
I’m excited about the legacy of Healthier Me - organisationally and for the people and communities we support.
Thank you to Omaze
Healthier Me wouldn't be possible without the generous support of Omaze. Their funding is helping us reach more people, create more opportunities and work towards a future where people with a learning disability can access the information, support and services they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
Together, we're making health and wellbeing more accessible for everyone.
Jon Sparkes OBE
Vijay Patel